Ziegfeld Theatre

141 W. 54th Street,

New York,
NY10019

You’re lucky you missed it it was lousy. One strip Cinerama and no curtain. Maybe some day NY will present a restored 3 strip Cinerama print. I mean NY has not see this in 40 years what are we waiting for? Must we fly to Seattle? Where are all the influential film lovers who can make this work? Maybe all they want to do is go to the Angelica. By the way I wish I could have seen SOM at the Rivoli.

I’m sure there was not. I remember when I was a kid it was a big family outing when we all went to the Rivoli to see “The Sound of Music” with my parents and both grandmothers. How special those roadshows were. The only real place that compares at all is Radio City Music Hall and I cant remember the last time they had a movie or premiere there. I dont know why I missed “This is Cinerama” when the Ziegfeld first opened, I have always wanted to see this and doubt they will ever go to the trouble to run it again.

Well it was pretty heart breaking when the restored Lawrence of Arabia and My Fair Lady were playing at the Ziegfeld and the Criterion was sitting there in Times Square all chopped and falling apart. And this was at one time the top booking for the biggest films. I kept thinking why don’t they turn the Ziegfeld into a Toys R Us and restore one of New Yorks great buildings. This was also one of New Yorks greatest blocks with the stupendous advertisements that floated and blinked above the Criterion day and night. Now these ads are straight from Tokyo and don’t have a thing to do with NY.
When I saw Funny Girl at the Ziegfeld there seemed to be 20 minutes of ads before the film. I wonder if this happened when it first played the Criterion…

Vincent
I agree 100% not one of the real Broadway palaces survived even though many were open into the eighties or ninties. When you think of what was there and destroyed, The Rivoli, The Warner Cinerama, The Capitol, Loews State, The Criterion, The Paramount and to a lesser degree the Strand and DeMille. I am sure I am forgetting some but unlike other cities that have restored at least one palace, NY tears them down. Remember a few years ago when they had the idea to build above Radio City and keep the theate intact? Why could that idea not have been used for The Rivoli or State?

The Zieglfeld and the Astor Plaza were always a pale copy of the great NY cinemas. It’s a great shame that they survived and the Rivoli, the Criterion, and the Warner Cinerama(Strand) were torn down. And this well after there was supposed to have been a renewed interest in historic theaters.

Went to a revival screening of “Funny Girl” here not too long ago…and during the intermission (remember those??), I laughed at the realization that it was the perfect place to see this film, as not only is Flo Ziegfeld portrayed in the film by Walter Pidgeon, but as previous posting writer Ed Salerno wrote, the antique programs of the Ziegfeld shows are behind glass in the lobby, and one can find the listings for Fanny Brice in some of them! Going back for the rest of the film after intermission, it was like having absorbed a DVD supplementary program!

An odd personal side note: the night John Lennon was killed less than 20 blocks north, I passed the rear of the theater that has its own vertical marquee, and the Ziegfeld was showing “Rock Show”, a little known Paul McCartney concert film! I was drunk on sake from a nearby sushi bar, when i took in Paul’s hitting-a-note look on the poster…and then i got home to the news. Freaky! (I think the film only showed that week.)

To clarify just a bit further, the concession area and theater entrance are indeed one level up.

Once on the second level, the main auditorium is accessed through two short passageways just adjacent to the concession area. The passageways flow to the left and right, wrapping around the balcony seating area.

At their opposite ends, the passageways stop at the foot of the balcony seating, and from here, the auditorium slowly descends towards the large screen, which, presumably, is located at or near ground level.

(The open plaza that Ed mentioned is formed in part by the right wall of the auditorium.)

Still a great place to see a movie and one of the all-too-few premier “opening night” theaters remaining in the city (the other being the similarly modern but plush Loew’s Astor Plaza on West 44th). It features a very large yet simple streamlined modern auditorium with none of the baroque architectural flourishes of the classic movie palaces. Like the Astor Plaza, the balcony rises at the back of the theater, rather than being vaulted over the orchestra seats. Also like the Astor Plaza, the theater is located underground with the large structure visible from street level serving as a spacious lobby area. The seats are plush, red velvet and the giant screen is concealed behind a heavy curtain that still opens and closes between each showing.

Vintage photos and programs line the walls of the upper and lower lobbies, depicting former Ziegfield shows and performers from the roaring days of the famed Follies at the New Amsterdam and Selwyn Theaters on 42nd street. Sound and projection are state of the art.

The theater is on West 54th Street (an adjacent open plaza stretches to West 55th) just west of 6th Avenue on the north-east fringe of the theater district in midtown Manhattan.

In February 1983 I was almost stuck in the Ziegfeld overnight. It was after a showing of GANDHI while a blizzard was socking New York. I was considering asking the Ziegfeld staff if I could sleep in the theater instead of going out into the brutal storm. I always regretted not having done it! New York’s best theater by far.